Protect and serve.

Posted on Sat Jan 28th, 2017 @ 12:00pm by

Mission: All the Kings Men: Wargames
Location: Chief of Security's office.
Timeline: Immediately after meeting with Smith.

Kevin walked into the Security department and marched into his office. He sat down at his desk and swiftly opened up a new Security file.

"Computer, open up Security file 'Gates One' and enter into it the following names, Michaels, Cordale, Tarlee, Keller, Kilvarn, T'eseri, Jarax..."

For the next few minutes he described the meeting with Agent Smith, the unofficial offer from him for officers and crew of the USS Victory to go after Admiral Gates, as opposed to following actual Starfleet orders to carry on with the war games to practice tactics to counter a Jennarri attack. Also about Captain Michaels asking Senior staff to talk to their departments to get volunteers, the objections and refusals from certain Senior officers and to end all that, Commander Cuprum offering to help those who wanted to go with Smith get saved from being arrested by telling the CO 'If you note that they are under your (Capt Michaels) instruction to take leave, then the entirety of the fault lies on you and you will protect the rest of those with you from court action."

He paused for a moment, then said "Computer, close file, and code to my voice print, optical retinal scan and code Kilbane Mike Alpha."

The computer closed the file and was silent.

At that point there was a knock at the door, and Kevin looked up to see Karadis standing there. "Everything ok?" she asked.

"No Karadis, everything is most definitely NOT ok" he answered "It turns out that our CO is ignoring current Starfleet orders and is instead taking orders from an SFI Agent called Smith. Not only that, but half the Senior staff are betraying us on the Victory and Starfleet as well by going with the CO and Agent Smith, along with some NCO's, other ranks and crewmen."

"That kind of sucks!" Karadis said.

"Very astute of you to say so Karadis" Kevin replied.

"You know me Lieutenant" Karadis replied "Direct and to the point."

"Don't get me wrong Shr'Nesh" Kevin said, throwing his hands up in despair "I hate Gates as much as those who are unlawfully about to go after him, and I want to see him brought to justice over what he's done, but we have specific orders from Starfleet and those orders have to be complied with. What if we're called into combat whilst these crew members are away? We'll be going into a fight with a lot of experienced people away, their positions being temporarily filled by others who may not be able to cope with their new responsibilities! The worst of it all though, is that even if those who are going with Smith and Captain Michaels do make it back before we have to go into battle with the Jennarri, how can they be trusted not to go off on another unauthorised trip when the feeling suits them???"

"That's something only they can answer Sir" Karadis said.

"Cuprum's made sure they don't get arrested for their actions....no, not actions, their betrayal, I just don't understand his reasoning!"

"Well he must have his reasons, otherwise, he wouldn't have suggested that course of action to Captain Michaels" Karadis said.

"The actions of those crew members are a disgrace and they should be held accountable for their actions and imprisoned" Kevin said "Unless there's a reason why one of them would want to be there" he added, suddenly looking ponderous and with a far away look on his face.

"Gates is a planner, he's a strategist, he'd have known that fleet HQ would send someone after him on that space station, so he'd have needed..." and he just stopped talking.

"He'd have needed what Sir?" Karadis asked.

"Mmmmmm?" Kevin murmmered, looking round at Karadis.

"You said Gates would have needed, then just stopped talking" Karadis replied.

"Oh, he'd have needed someone on the inside, on the Victory, to relay the ships actions to him" Kevin answered "and I have a feeling that someone will still be on this ship, but deep undercover, inconspicuous, not immediately noticeable, but will have volunteered to go with Captain Michaels and Agent Smith. That means........" and he smiled at Shr'Nesh.

"What???" Karadis said, then she stood back a couple of paces and pointed a finger at Kevin "NO, and I mean NO!!! There's NO way I'm going, not on your nelly!"

"Of course you are" Kevin said, "How else can you save the day?"

"I'M NOT GOING KEVIN!!!" Karadis said, almost shouting.

At this point, Kevin realised she was being very very serious as it was the only time she ever used his Christian name as she just had.

"Yes you are Shr'Nesh, because Captain Michaels will need you, even though he won't realise it, to stop him getting injured or even an attempt being made on his life" Kevin replied.

Shr'Nesh threw her hands up in the air in despair, she'd lost the argument and she knew it. It went against the grain, but she knew Kevin was right, and deep down, though she hated what Captain Michaels was going to be doing, her first instinct was to act as a Security Officer and protect him at all costs......she was going on the Gates mission.